Our Large 4WD SUV of the Year award was a difficult one this year. We had three contenders, one of which was ruled out of contention by timing as we were unable to test it prior to the deadline for the awards, always a bugbear, but that is the nature of awards. This left us with two very deserving vehicles, but the winner wrote its own prophetic catchphrase for its entry this year... there’s only one.

And the winner is the Jeep Grand Cherokee.

It was hard to know where to start with this vehicle – so many firsts, so many features and so many surprises! The Grand Cherokee of today is everything its name suggests and promises. The Grand Cherokee combines all of Jeep’s tried and proven off-road capabilities and merges them with the best of contemporary features such as air-suspension, the Selec-Terrain system and a built-in night-vision camera to deliver a truly formidable seven-seat package (the first three-row model for the Grand in New Zealand). For those who really don’t need seven seats there’s a standard-wheelbase five-seat version on the way in early 2023. Similarly, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) version arrives next year with a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine, making a combined 280kW and offering an electric-only range of 40km.

NZ4WD’s verdict after testing was that “this new ‘Grand’ is a worthy replacement for its predecessor, the tech and spec really cries out for dealership forecourt briefings for buyers, and there is no reason to bewail the absence of the V8. It is every bit a credible rival for the many other seven seaters out there.”